


New Year's Day

by BackinBlack47



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:34:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22061146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BackinBlack47/pseuds/BackinBlack47
Summary: Rey and Ben meet at a party on New Year's eve. Happy New Year!
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	New Year's Day

**Author's Note:**

> Woefully unproofread and unbetad. I wanted to get the first part of this up tonight. Happy New Year, and thank you all for such a good year as part of this fandom!

** 9 pm, New Year’s Eve **

Ben doesn’t want to go to the stupid party in the first place. But it’s New Year’s Eve, and he figures he should go out at least once. Mitaka asks him to come to bars at least once a week, but he was never very social. He hates crowded rooms full of people. At least in court he’s interrogating someone, and there’s no time for casual chit-chat. He hates this hotel ballroom, so packed with people he’s pushed up against a wall, attempting to keep his drink from spilling as people squeeze by.

The entire building of offices had rents out a fancy ballroom at a five-star hotel every year, and everyone is expected to make an appearance. It’s not like Ben, or anyone else Snoke and Associates Law has time for anything else, anyways. Snoke works them to the bone, but they are the most sought-after corporate defense law firm.

He’s nursing a rum and Coke, listening to Mitaka and Hux wax on about nothing, desperately wanting to leave. He can make it to midnight. He can make it to midnight without punching Hux in the face, even though he really wants to.

This is probably better than his past couple new year’s celebrations, which he had spent alone. Granted, one was on the Italian countryside, a trip at the insistence of his mother, saying that _he spent too much time cooped up in his apartment and needed to get out more_ . Leia had booked him a ticket, hotel, and sent him the confirmation. An _I’m disappointed in you, but you’re still my only child_ Christmas present from her. _Why not_ , he figured. He went wine tasting, then rang in the new year by himself.

He tells himself he’s having fun at this party, even though he would rather be anywhere else.

***

Rey only goes to the party at Rose’s insistence that it would be fun. She spent last new year’s eve getting drunk rewatching Lord of the Rings with her friends. Though it was fun, they hadn’t been out together in ages. It seemed like as good a night as any. 

Rey is Rose’s plus one, and Poe is Finn’s. She’d met Finn, Rose, and Poe in undergrad, and they’d been inseparable ever since. Rose and Finn both worked in the same building, a swanky skyscraper in downtown Chicago. Much better than Rey’s current job. She’s getting her PhD in criminology and she loves what she does, but school is tiring. 

They check their coats at the door, and Rey shivers as the cold winter wind ghosts over her arms. Her dress is black, low cut, and fairly short, bought on a whim when out shopping with Rose. Rose in question was in bright red, gravitating towards color even when it was clear that everyone around them had chosen to wear white or black.

After a unanimous chorus of _let’s get drinks_ , they head to the bar. The building went all out, with a buffet and an unlimited bar, which likely attracted the number of people. Rey doesn’t think she could spend a whole night with her coworkers without unlimited alcohol. Judging by what she’s heard from Finn and Rose, they couldn’t either. They work in law, a smaller office on a lower floor than the corporate Snoke and Associates on the top floor. 

Rose names people as they pass by. “That’s Kadel, she works in the accountant’s office on the fifth floor. That’s Jessica Pava, she works in the printing business on the seventh floor. And that’s Ben Solo. He works at Snoke’s, and he’s a known asshole.” The man in question has thick black hair, and a surprisingly soft looking face for a known asshole. He is tall, and in a bored looking conversation with the red-headed man next to him. 

“Asshole how?” Rey asks, roaming her eyes over him closer. 

“You know, the usual. Rude to service workers, always yelling on his phone. It’s rumored he even threw a chair and shattered a glass table when a case didn’t go the way he wanted.” Rose snickers at the end. “It was kind of amazing. Office gossip for days.” 

“Oh.” Rey wrinkles her nose. He looks more bored than anything at the moment, staring into his drink as the two men around him talk. 

The crowd is packed so densely that she rests her hand on Rose’s shoulder so they don’t get separated. The bar at the back of the ballroom, two lines snaking their way along the walls. 

They _finally_ make it to the bar, elbowing their way to the front. Rey orders last out of the four of them. She manages to order a tequila sunrise before someone elbows her. She turns and glares at them.

“God, this is the worst,” Rose complains in her ear.

“At least it’s free,” Rey replies.

“You’d think someplace this fancy would have a better system-ow, that’s my foot!” Rose glares at the man next to her. 

“Go, I’ll find you once I get my drink,” Rey says, fearing that if she turned around, she would lose her place. 

“We’ll try to get food,” Finn yells to her. 

Her drink sloshes over the rim of the glass as the bartender plops it down in front of her. She takes a sip. It may have taken a long time, but at least her drink is perfect. 

**10 pm, New Year’s Eve**

She tries to make her way back to her friends, but the crowd is surging towards the bar, and she’s never quite mastered how to elbow her way through crowds.

“Oof,” she says as she’s pushed into someone. “Sorry about that, it’s really crow –" she turns around, and stops when her eyes met his. _Shit_. It’s Ben Solo, notorious asshole. At least she didn’t spill her drink on him. Small mercies. She takes a sip of her drink now, her cheeks heating.

“It’s fine,” he says. Someone elbows her from behind again, and she wobbles a little in her heels. His hand on her waist steadies her.

“Thanks.”

He nods, his hand still on her waist, fingers reaching around her back. She coughs, because he doesn’t seem to realize he still has a hold on her. His hand flies from her waist and settles at his side, fist clenched, the tips of his ears dusted pink.

Mercifully, she spots Rose, Finn, and Poe hovering by yet another line, waiting for food. 

“Gotta go,” she says, turning and hurrying towards her friends, her cheeks heating from the awkwardness. 

"Good, you made it," Rose says, slipping one arm through Rey's. 

"Where does the line start?" 

"Over there." Rose points to a line that, even in that short amount of time, has managed to snake around more tables and to the wall. 

"Oh fuck.”

The line takes forever, of course. “We should have gotten here earlier,” Rose complains. After a rousing discussion on the new Starkiller video game and another round of drinks Poe steps out of line to fetch, they are finally close enough to smell the food. Rey’s stomach growls. 

“God, finally,” Finn groans. 

At some point, she gets lost in the crush of people. She grabs several tongs full of everything that looks appetizing. But when she turns around, Finn and Rose and Poe are nowhere in sight. 

She darts over to the wall, to get out of the crush of people and have more space to breathe. She doesn’t notice Ben Solo until she reaches the wall. His head is bent down as he examines his phone. She leans against the wall and sighs. He glances over at her. 

Her free hand holds a plate stacked high with hors d'oeuvres, mostly made up of bacon wrapped shrimp.

** 11 pm, New Year’s Eve **

“Sorry. I’m just trying to find my friends,” she says. She tries to peer over the crowd, but even in her heels, which she reckons she’s probably just under six feet in, she’s too short to see over the bulk of people.

“What do they look like?”

He’s probably asking because he’s so much taller than her. She realizes he can likely see all the way over the crowd. 

“Um. Kinda short, black bob, bright red dress?”

He peers around the crowd, while she sneaks glances at his face.

“She’s by the bar, with Finn,” he says. The man really is massive.

“You know Finn?”

“By proxy. He used to be friends with some people I work with.”

“Small world.” 

“They work on the sixteenth floor, right?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I see them get off the elevator every day.”

“Ah.” She nods and sips her drink. “Is it even worth trying to get to them?”

He shrugs. “If you want to fight your way through, be my guest.”

She sighs. “It’s not worth it. It’ll probably take me a million years to get over there.” He sips his drink and doesn’t say anything in response. They stand in awkward silence until Rey absolutely cannot take it anymore.

“So, what do you do?” she asks, even though she already knows. Better this than nothing. 

“I’m a defense lawyer.”

“Do you like it?”

He looks confused by this prospect. “It’s a job. It’s fine, I guess.”

“What’s a job worth if you don’t like what you’re doing?”

“Money. Mostly. Law pays well.”

“Sometimes I wish I’d stuck it out.”

“What?”

“I did in fact drop out of law school.” She had dropped out after her first year. It turns out she hated law school and it’s endless hours of reading. “Well, now I’m doing criminology, which honestly I like much better,” she continues. “I feel like I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing.”

“Law school was too hard and you couldn’t keep up,” he says.

Her cheeks flush. “Hey! That’s rude. I just didn’t like it, I…” she trails off, turning away so she doesn’t have to meet his eyes. _Right. Asshole_.

“I’m sorry,” he says. She turns to look at him, and he looks apologetic. “I mean it. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You are known as an asshole.”

He frowns slightly. “I’m not _that_ much of an asshole.”

“I mean, you’re a little bit rude.”

“Blame law school.”

“Glad I dropped out.” She takes a gulp of her drink.

He wrinkles his nose. “Can’t say I blame you. I don’t miss law school.” 

“What you said about liking your job…” he starts, then stops, taking a sip of his drink. “I don’t like it. I mean, I don’t hate it, but it’s honestly not what I feel like I’m meant to do. I think I would have been a writer.”

“Really?”

He nods. “If it makes you feel better, I dropped out of an MFA program.”

“It does make me feel better, actually.”

He smiles. His lips are so full. 

“What genre do you write?” she asks instead. 

“Did. Science fiction. More of a blend of sci-fi and fantasy, actually.” He sighs. “I have a half-finished series. I started querying with agents back in the day, but my job got in the way.”

“You should start again. It’s never too late for something like that.”

“You think?”

She nods. “Totally. I mean, most writers don’t even get set in their careers until they’re older, anyways.” 

“I could pull it out. See what trash I wrote when I was younger.” 

“Why did you chose law then?”

He pauses for a moment. He takes a drink as he thinks, his tongue darting out to wipe a stray drop on his lip. “Law let me be angry,” he says finally. “I got to yell and do something.”

"Are you angry a lot?"

"I used to be. I really don't get along with my family that well. It was worse when I was younger and had to see them on a regular basis."

"At least you knew them and could decide how you felt. I never really got to know my parents." The second it’s out of her mouth, she regrets it. She’s come to loathe the look of pity she gets every time someone finds out that she has no family left. 

"I'm sorry." His voice is soft. He’s studying her intently, the look on his face more like curiosity than pity. 

It's her turn to shrug. "Nothing I want to do about it now."

“Well, you seem to have done pretty well for yourself.” 

“Thanks.” She smiles at him, and she means it. 

***

He hasn't talked about his old writing in years. Conversation just seems to flow easier with her. 

He doesn't stop talking to her for the better part of an hour.

Microphone feedback echoes from the room, and someone’s voice blasts through the speakers. Ben starts and tears his eyes away from her. Maybe it’s the alcohol, but he’s confessed things to this woman that he hasn’t thought about in years.

“Happy almost new year’s everyone,” a female voice says. “We have 5 minutes left in this year, so top off your drinks, and find someone to kiss at midnight.” The last bit earns some cheers and catcalls from the audience.

“I was planning to leave at midnight,” he leans down to say into her ear. She is making him want to stay longer, this girl who brings out parts of him he thought he had forgotten.

“I’m planning to stay all night,” she says. She laughs. “This is probably the best New Year’s party I’ve been to since undergrad. Usually it’s just my friends and I in one of our apartments with take-out and too much champagne.”

“I usually spend it alone. I’ve never really been one for parties.” 

“Are you liking this one at least?”

“I’m in good company.” 

**Midnight**

He can’t actually believe he said that aloud. But she steps closer to him.

She’s staring up at him, and he tightens his grip on her waist. Her bright red lipstick has worn off, though her lips are still stained from the color. He wonders how she would react if he kissed her.

_“FIVE!_

He leans closer. 

_FOUR!_

Her hands come to rest on his chest. 

_THREE!_

She parts her lips the slightest amount.

_TWO!_

Her eyes dart to his lips. 

_ONE!_

HAPPY NEW YEAR!” Everyone in the ballroom screams together, cheering.

It’s officially a new year, and he has nothing to lose. He leans down and presses her lips to hers. Her arms wrap around his neck, pulling him closer. Her tongue parts his lips and slides into his mouth. She tastes like the sweet syrupiness of her drink, and he is very glad he came to this party tonight.

Her hands play with the hair at the nape of his neck, and he sighs into her mouth. He is lost to her entirely.


End file.
